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Anand Holds Slim Lead at Wijk aan Zee

Viswanathan Anand defeated Peter Leko in the 5th round in Wijk ann Zee to take a half-point lead at the Corus Chess Tournament. Anand is closely followed by FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov and Vassily Ivanchuk, each with 3.5 points.

Entering the fifth round, Anand and Topalov shared the lead at 3/4. However, Topalov fell off the pace as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov held him to a draw in a fiercely contested game, allowing Anand to take an early lead in the tournament.

Also in contention are two players a full point back of Anand: Israeli GM Boris Gelfand, and Sergey Karjakin, the youngest competitor in the field.

The lone American in the 14-player field, Gata Kamsky, has struggled thusfar. Although he scored a strong win over Gelfand, Kamsky has lost his other four games. This has left him alone in last place with a score of 1/5. Things won't get any easier for Kamsky in the upcoming rounds; The sixth round sees him facing Anand, after which he'll face Leko with black.

Here are the complete standings so far in the A section:

Anand, Viswanathan 4.0
Ivanchuk, Vassily 3.5
Topalov, Veselin 3.5
Gelfand, Boris 3.0
Karjakin, Sergey 3.0
Adams, Michael 2.5
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar2.5
Aronian, Levon 2.5
Leko, Peter 2.0
Sokolov, Ivan 2.0
Van Wely, Loek 2.0
Tiviakov, Sergei 2.0
Bacrot, Etienne 1.5
Kamsky, Gata 1.0

In Group B, two young grandmasters currently share the lead. Both Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany and Norway's Magnus Carlsen have 4 points, a half point better than four players tied for third. In Group C, Suat Atalik of Turkey currently holds a commanding lead at 4.5/5, a full point better than his closest competition.

We will be providing complete coverage of this tournament, as well as the always competitive B and C sections, over the next few weeks. For the official tournament site, click here. For now, here is Anand's win over Leko in round 5.

White: Anand, V (2792)
Black: Leko, P (2740)
Corus, Round 5
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bc4 O-O 9. O-O Be6 10. Bb3 Nc6 11. Bg5 Nd7 12. Bxe7 Qxe7 13. Nd5 Qd8 14. c3 Na5 15. Re1 Rc8 16. h3 Nb6 17. Nxb6 Qxb6 18. Bxe6 fxe6 19. Re2 Rc6 20. Qd3 Qc7 21. Rd1 Nc4 22. b3 Nb6 23. c4 Nc8 24. Red2 h6 25. Qe2 Kh7 26. h4 Qb6 27. h5 Qc5 28. Ne1 Rc7 29. Nd3 Qc6 30. c5 Ne7 31. Qg4 Rf6 32. b4 d5 33. Nxe5 Qa4 34. Qg3 Rc8 35. Ng4 Rf7 36. Qd6 Rcf8 37. Qxe6 Qxb4 38. exd5 Qxc5 39. d6 Nc6 40. d7 Nd8 41. Qe4+ Qf5 42. Re2 Qxe4 43. Rxe4 b5 44. f3 a5 45. Ne5 Rf6 46. Ng6 Rg8 47. Re8 Rf7 48. Rd5 b4 49. Ne7 1-0